Story and Photos by our mate Christian Starkey @christianstarkey__

It’s hard to explain what Gliding Barnacles really is. It’s not really just a surf festival. It’s a few days on a beach in Portugal where art, surfing, and community blur together into something that doesn’t quite fit a label. What makes it special is the people — a small, tight-knit community that somehow draws in faces from all over the world. We come from different places, but we seem to live the same way. Everyone brings something different, and somehow it all fits.

This year was my third time back at Praia do Cabadelo at Figueroa Da Foz on Portugal’s mid-north coast, and each year I return, I find myself less focused on the waves and more on the people. The festival has a way of pulling together this beautiful mix of creative folk — musicians, loggers, artists, photographers and more — all here for the same thing: to connect, to create, and to have a good time together. Some of the faces in my photos have become my closest friends in Portugal, and I’ll always be grateful to GB for bringing us together.

There’s also something about how the festival celebrates photography itself. Every year, there are dozens — maybe hundreds — of photographers wandering around, capturing moments from their own perspective. I’m sure the week after the festival ends the film labs in Lisbon and Porto are buzzing. For me, surfing and photography are my two biggest passions, and GB somehow brings them together in the most natural way. It’s inspiring to see how everyone interprets the same weekend so differently — and how all those perspectives somehow fit together.

It’s hard to do this gathering any justice without being there in person. I just hope my photos help peoplefeel what it’s like — the laughter, the love, the togetherness. From Wednesday to Sunday, time blurs. Day folds into night, and night folds back into day. You lose track of everything except the people around you. And then suddenly, it’s over. You say goodbye to the beautiful faces you’ve shared it all with — but you know you’ll see them again next year.

Christian Starkey - 23/10/25